Dan Schlereth holds a bright spot on the Tigers for me. I sent out 3 x 5 cards to all the players on
the 40 man roster in 2011 and even some of the non roster invitees and some of
the former players who have been traded.
I got responses back from 5 and 4 of the five actually gave me an
autograph. Dan was one who gave an
autograph. Dan also is somewhat unique
in that he was born in Alaska. Dan came
to the Tiges in the Curtis Granderson deal.
The deal was the Tigers sending Granderson to the Yanks and Edwin
Jackson to the Diamondbacks. In return
the Tiges got Phil Coke and Austin Jackson form the Yanks and Max Scherzer and
Dan from the Diamondbacks. The Yanks
also sent Ian Kennedy to the Diamondbacks.
Dan was 2-0 his first season in Detroit in 2010 and had a 2.89 ERA. He was a surprise in the bull pen as he was
not expected to be a big part of the deal.
In 2011 Dan was 2-2 with a 3.49 ERA.
He tends to K more batters than he walks but that did not help him in
2012. He finished the season at no
decisions and a 10.29 ERA. His WHIP
(Walks and hits per inning pitched) last year of 2.714 was also more than
double 2011’s 1.367. Last year I stated
“If Dan does not have a good outing his couple of outings he may find himself
in Toledo.” He did not get that
chance. He finished the season in
Lakeland and Toledo and did not get a win or a save. He pitched a total of 9.2 innings and his
career in the Tiger organization was over.
The Tiges granted him free agency on November 30 of 2012 and less than
three weeks later he signed with the Baltimore Orioles. He is 2-0 with their AAA team in Norfolk with
a 1.00 ERA in 9 games. I would expect to
see him up with the O’s later this season and probably not too far away.
Prince Fielder has followed his Dad in becoming a
Tiger. His Dad Cecil and he do not get
along very well. Gambling issues with
his Dad have come between them. Prince
was with the Milwaukee Brewers for seven seasons where he averaged .282 with 33
homers and 49 RBI’s. Before the 2012
season the Tigers signed Prince as a free agent and he hit .313 with 30 homers
and 108 RBI’s. He was an All-Star and
won a Silver Slugger award. In 2013 he
is hitting .304 with 8 homers and 32 RBI’s and we are only 30 games into the
season. He also leads the league right
now in walks with 24. Three of those are
intentional.
Ron Jackson played part of the 1981 season for the Tigers as
a 28 year old first baseman. In 31 games
for the Tigers he hit .284 with one homer.
He had played six years prior to the Tigers for the California Angels
and the Twinkies of Minnesota. We got
him in the block buster trade of a player to be named later by the name of Tim
Corcoran. Ron was granted free agency
after the season and signed with the Angels again. He wound up his career with the Orioles in
1984 as a career .259 hitter. After
retiring as a player Ron has had a very successful career as a hitting
coach. He was the hitting coach for the
Red Sox from 2003 through 2006. In 2004
the Sox won the World Series and set MLB records for extra base hits, total
bases and slugging. Yet two years later
he was fired.
Tom Yewcic went to Michigan State and made it to the Tigers
in 1957. He was quarterback for the 1954
Spartan Rose Bowl Champions. He signed
with the Tiges in 1954 and was in their farm system for a couple of years until
June of 1957. In the bottom of the sixth
inning of a game in Washington with the Senators leading 6-2, Tom came into the
game behind the plate to replace starting catcher Red Wilson. Tom got his first and only major league at
bat when he faced Tex Clevenger in the seventh and he popped up to shortstop
and future Tiger Milt Bolling. I am sure
it must have been a huge impact on the 1,506 fans at the game. Tom was also involved in an error in the
bottom of the 8th. With one
out Julio Becquer reached on an error by Tiger third baseman, Steve Boros. Julio then tried to steal second and was
called safe on Tom’s throwing error. But
Julio did not stop and went on to third and rounded for home. By this time Tiger second baseman, Ron
Samford retrieved the ball and threw home to Tom in time to catch Julio coming
in. Julio was out for the third out of
the inning and Tom never set foot on major league diamond again. However, Tom did play pro football after
that. He played six seasons with the
Boston Patriots from 1961 through 1966 as a punter and back up QB.
Below is Tom in spring training in his Tigers uni. I sent a copy of this to him and he signed it for me.
Lew Drill played part of the 1904 and the 1905 season with
the Tigers. He was a back up catcher for
the Tigers and hit .253 for us. His
career was 293 games with the Tigers and Senators and Baltimore Orioles, before
they moved to New York to become the Yankees.
He was a career .258 hitter. He
came to Detroit when we purchased him from the Senators July 22, 1904.
Walter Prince played part of one season with the Detroit
Wolverines. Walter started his career in
1883 with the Louisville Eclipse of the American Association. He got in four games that season and got two
hits. In 1884 he started the season with
the Wolverines as an outfielder.
However, he did not last long. He
was in only seven games as a Wolverine.
He got a total of 3 hits for a .143 average. He was worse in the outfield. He had 8 chances in the outfield and made 5
errors for a .375 fielding percentage.
After the seven games he was off to Washington to finish out the season
with the Washington Nationals. He hit
.218 for Washington and his fielding percentage was .940. After the season he was done in the majors
but did play in the minors until 1889.
No comments:
Post a Comment